


dissolve

by redolater



Category: A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Angst War (with romance!), Cumulous Rocks and his fondness for artifacts, Minor Character Death, Other, The Hungry One, angst war, no beta we die like men, violent imagery, what the fuck is proof reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:26:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24914581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redolater/pseuds/redolater
Summary: “Hey Cumulous,” Liam mused, later that evening. The two were splitting one of the guest quarters in the lawful queen’s hidden keep. Cumulous looked up from his sleeping bag when Liam said, “What’s your deal with artifacts and swords and stuff? Just a..history buff?”Cumulous felt a new wave of thick tears pushing at his eyes.
Relationships: Cumulous Rocks/Original Character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	dissolve

Cumulous Rocks was mysterious, yes, but more than that, most people found him odd. Frightening, even. 

His connection to the Hungry One below is, of course, unsettling to learn of. The ability he had to gain energy from his fallen foes, well, that’s wholly off-putting. Strangely enough, though, when he beheld a magical weapon or antique, Cumulous simply couldn’t keep himself from weeping. It at first confused the other members of the Rocks family and their entourage, but eventually they found this quirk almost endearing. 

Seeing the weapons that Ruby and Jet held, the very same that their aunts once used, that was a lot for Cumulous. It was so much more to behold the many treasures he beheld in Saccharina’s makeshift palace, though. He cried and clung to anything he saw — tomes, figurines, carvings — when Cumulous ran his fingers along an artifact like these, he could feel the magic thrumming beneath its surface. Like a heartbeat, almost. 

“Hey Cumulous,” Liam mused later that evening. The two were splitting one of the guest quarters in the lawful queen’s hidden keep. Cumulous looked up from his sleeping bag where he was cradling a golden chalice when Liam asked, “What’s your deal with the statues and swords and stuff? Just a history buff? A..an emotionally charged history buff?”

Cumulous felt a second wave of thick tears pushing at his eyes. “Well,” he coughed a bit to disguise a croak. When he went to rub his eyes dry, the sugar in his fingers crackled and dissolved, dropping a few shades. “Well, uh. If you’re familiar with magic, and touch something magical, you can really sense the power of it.”  
Liam scooted onto the edge of the bed he was sitting on, nodding. “I saw Caramelinda keeping her hand on all of Lazuli’s old books.” 

Cumulous made no attempt to sit up, lying still in his sleeping bag, but he offered Liam a sound of agreement. “Lazuli’s magic is so powerful.” he took silent delight in how, even now, Lazuli’s magic was an is and not a was. “Feeling someone’s spells persisting...it makes it undeniable that they’re still, you know, around.” Cumulous let his eyes shift up towards the ceiling. He stared into the spiral pattern carved or maybe painted above him.  
Now, Liam wasn’t always the most insightful, but it wasn’t like he was stupid. “Cumulous,” he said slowly, obviously considering his word choice more then than usual. “Is there someone, uhh..” his words hung in the air. “Someone, um. Around? That you liked or loved or. Something?”

Cumulous sighed, rolling onto his side. There wasn’t a thing he could even say but, “yeah.” Liam hummed, trying to imagine Cumulous on the arm of some magician. It was weirdly hard. Cumulous had a one-track mind, he still did.  
Cumulous didn’t expect Liam to blurt out, “What was she, or, uh, what were they like?”

A sharp, deep-skinned face lit up at once in Cumulous’s mind. He saw soft brown curls scooped back into a bun, the round, kind eyes he loved once and the smile he once lived to see. 

“Their name was Heath.” 

All at once Cumulous was remembering those bygone days, preparing for the ravening war. He was young, newly inducted into the Order of the Spinning Star, always running errands for Lazuli, training in the mountains, hardly finding time to visit Heath. 

“They, um. They were a smith.”

Strong, gloved hands brought a hammer down upon a glowing hot sword. Next to Heath stood Archmage Lazuli, hovering her palm over the metal to enchant it between strikes. Cumulous remembered standing nearby, enthralled by their practiced procedure, he remembered taking the weapon to Lazuli’s oldest sister. He remembered when Heath whispered that the blade was named Flickerish. 

“We worked together. Err, they worked for the archmage, and so did I.”

Cumulous recalled carrying the brand-new Flickerish through a teleportation ward and to the castle. Its magic was fresh, he could nearly smell it. Lazuli’s power coursed through the hilt, but beneath that heavy, overwhelming feeling, was the earthy feeling that reminded Cumulous most of Heath. 

“Wow,” Liam muttered, nowhere near picturing Heath the way they were. “And you.. and you loved them?”

Cumulous nodded, eyes glassy with more tears yet. “They were so good at making me feel...noticed. And sane. And, you know, good. The Hungry One..the powers I drew from it were scary at first. Heath just knew how to wipe that fear off of me.”

Liam shot him a weary glance, “Tell me that’s not a euphemism.”  
Cumulous just laughed, softly, shifting his arms to support his head, and gave no clear answer to Liam. 

His mind drifted back to that time so full of work, of being busy, of being so useful. Cumulous thought of the sugarglass rose that Heath once made him. He smiled wide, asked how they made it, felt for their magic heartbeat in the faux flower, all but sobbing when he found it in the centermost clump of fake petals. In the monastery, there were few things allowed to be kept in the bedrooms. Cumulous, without shame, snuck it in, and kept it beside his pillow always. 

Cumulous’s nostalgia turned more bitter when thinking back on when Lazuli brought in a dozen more monks, one of which being Pinta Javalate, who in crude terms was a chocolate-covered coffee bean. She was kind enough at first, if withdrawn. But, in the end, she was found out as a Vegetanian spy. A Vegetanian spy sent to weaken the Rocks family. 

She, in her brief time as a monk, learned that one Heath Tovay was the weaponsmith assisting the wicked Archmage, so.. As per her orders, Pinta attacked with the most powerful weapon she could use against a Candian. 

Cumulous, somewhere in the monastery, froze when Lazuli’s voice rang in his ears. A message spell, a simple one. She only said, “I’m sorry. Too late. Heath. Find Pinta, kill her.” 

He rearranged the runes quicker than ever before, all but stumbling into Heath’s smithy, but like Lazuli said, it was too late. Through their thick, leather apron, hot blood spilt out from two water dagger wounds. Cumulous dropped to the floor by Heath, hands fumbling to cup their face. The heavy smell of sugary blood was thick, the sound of what once was strong toffee flesh dissolving and crackling loud in the air. 

“Cue,” whimpered Heath. Cumulous, through his tears, met their round, kind eyes struck with agony. “Cue, it hurts. It fucking hurts, Cue,” they keened, a gloved hand enveloping Cumulous’s.  
The monk nodded. “I know,” because he did know, his arms and legs had been treated with water to make them stronger, and god, it stung. But he didn’t know. He didn’t know what it felt like to be stabbed and to feel your innards dissolve. 

Something in Heath’s mind clicked. Weakly, they told Cumulous, “Kill me,” and Cue shot still and cold. His eyes blew wide. He shook his head, no, he couldn’t, he couldn’t finish Heath off, he wouldn’t, no, no, he would never. But Heath persisted, begged, “Cue, please, you have to make it stop. You—your power, you get energy when you kill a, when you...” Heath was fading fast but not fast enough. They would likely die in three minutes. The three final moments of their life would be torture. 

Cumulous bent over the bleeding form, hands gentle on their cheeks, to offer one final kiss. He felt Heath’s quick breathing, the taste of sugar on their tongue, and the warmth of their lips fading. 

And then a sickening snap as Cumulous cracked their neck in one expert movement. Heath’s suffering was over. Cumulous absorbed the health promised to him, health put to good use when he cornered Pinta not ten minutes later. 

Cumulous was brought back to the present when Liam tapped him on the shoulder. “You okay?” He asked in a soft voice. Cumulous sighed, again staring at the intricate ceiling, reminding him too much of one sugarglass rose. 

“Yeah. Yeah, Liam.” He rolled onto his stomach to bury his weeping face into a pillow. “I’m going to sleep.”

Cumulous wasn’t surprised when a familiar face appeared in his dreams to relive those years again. A constant encore of emotions and memories. 

The smith, the rose, the dissolving. 

The snap of a neck.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know it’s original character/canon character, but cringe culture is dead. Thanks for reading! As per usual, comments and Kudos make my day! <3


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